An easy choice, this one, as I only saw the one example of the species this year. I stopped off at Lulworth itself on 24th May on my way home from Devon knowing that their long season usually starts around then, and was lucky enough to find this lone male not far from Stair Hole. LWS3 240523.JPG I h...

Yes, wasn't this tyrrhenian purple, a very expensive dye that signified wealth and nobility in Roman times, purple togas etc. Roger Yes, I think it was made from some kind of rare shellfish (of all things). When you think about it, the world of lepidoptera is a very inclusive one. After all, we thi...

Large Skippers were more widespread than usual across my local patch, but numbers were around the same overall. This one was seen in a new area of the site on 9th June. LS2 090623.JPG The biggest surprise was discovering a thriving elongated colony along the side of one of the streams across Staines...

It was still warm on the last day of October, but sunshine was even more difficult to pin down. I still found six butterflies of five species, and managed to photograph five of them. The other one, the annoying Brown Argus that had been persistently pestering the Common Blue, once again evaded my le...

Unlike Paul's experience, the Hollies on my local patch had a really good season (but to be honest, I can't recall a bad one here). They were a bit slow getting started, and the third brood was nothing special, but the aggregate count over all my 2023 outings came to nearly 1100 butterflies. The pea...

I didn't go out on 29th, and my timing around the short spells of sunshine on 30th October was a bit off, so I only managed four butterflies (in many past years this would be an achievement at the end of October, but expectations are changing). Two Red Admirals, one of which was definitely egg-layin...

28th October was another day trying to time an outing around one of the sunny intervals - made more interesting by some heavy showers. In the end I struck lucky and covered most of my local patch, clocking up 14 butterflies of seven species. It was not difficult to find a certain Small Copper... SC...

A definite for all those, Wurzel - great to see exotic Orange Tips doing ordinary Orange Tip things. However, you deserve another at least for those fabulous Festoons. What a lovely set of species they are.

Cheers,

Dave

Cheers, David. Things were actually winding down, but you get a slightly distorted view when you go out each day and mostly see exactly the same individual butterflies! :) 27th October was a bit cooler, with a bit less sunshine, and I had limited time coinciding with the sunny intervals. There were ...

The sun shone this morning in my part of the world - but without the usual December accompaniment of frost and/or fog. The temperature reached 11 or 12 degrees before high cloud spoiled it after midday, but I managed a quick walk close to home ahead of that. I wouldn't have been surprised if a Red A...

Cheers, Wurzel - the butterflies were slowing down as things began to cool off so frantic photography was less of a thing! Believe it or not, there is another oak tree nearby which still has lots of leaves, some of them green. Very strange. I'll try and post a photo at some point... :) 26th October ...

It was cooler and less sunny on 25th October , and the sunshine only came in short bursts. I only found four butterflies, and here are three of them (the fourth was another Red Admiral). I don't think any of these had been spotted a day earlier. RA1 251023.JPG SC1 251023.JPG SpW1 251023.JPG The afte...

True enough, David - October felt like September (and September had felt like high summer of course, so it fits really! :) ) Third broods of Brown Argus, Common Blue and Holly Blue are expected here these days. It was a standout day for late October, Wurzel - the numbers were surprising as well as t...

Aside from generally being bigger than other UK blues (as the name suggests), they really can be a a striking deep blue - both characteristics make them relatively easy to identify when there are also Common Blues around. I spent two days at Collard Hill in June: both were hot and sunny, but I arriv...

...our site is never good for Red Admirals, and this was the same as usual... I think they always do better at coastal locations and along river valleys and other natural "migration corridors" - hence me clocking up 153 on the 6th July all within a couple of hundred metres of the River Co...

bugboy wrote: ↑Tue Nov 28, 2023 10:44 pm
It only kept it quiet until the fish was gone though.

It needed to be quiet for its parent to give it another fish, because you know what they say...

Only one good tern deserves another.

(Sorry, couldn't resist that... )

Dave

The Blues on 22nd October of course included Brown Argus. BA1 221023.JPG BA3 221023.JPG BA4 221023.JPG Then there were the Common Blues, but I reckoned I had seen the last of any new emergences: these were all worn now. CB6 221023.JPG CB3 221023.JPG CB5 221023.JPG CB4 221023.JPG The last of these wa...

I'm with Paul on this, Wurzel - those fresh GUBs are absolutely splendid. I've only ever seen a worn male.

Cheers,

Dave

Cheers, Wurzel - the Holly Blues hadn't finished with me yet. :) Less than four weeks till we turn the solstice corner and head back into the light now... :) It was easy to forget it was October, David (except for the short afternoons). Interestingly, that female looks just like those first-brooders...

That's a splendid radiata, Paul - they are great-looking butterflies (perhaps not as dazzling as that array of NZ Coppers we were looking at yesterday, though... ).

Cheers,

Dave